Had a call from cousin Liz today. She was complaining about a 30-storey apartment block that’s being built near her shopping centre. She thinks it’s disgraceful, and that the limit should be six stories (why not seven?). When I pointed out that if that were the case, they would need five times as much land to house the same number of people, and where did she propose that should be, maybe in the parkland behind her home, she was mortified. No, of course not, the high-principled NIMBY. She didn’t have any other solution though. But make that building only house one fifth as many people to suit her aesthetic values.
To bolster her sense of outrage she decided she was upset on behalf of some of the nearby homes, as they were losing their view of the city. Anyway, she was adamant that views are important, so I said, yes, they are, so she should be grateful that by building those apartments the developers are creating many more homes with views than there are homes losing their views. Once again, no answer for that. Did not compute. I sensed she wasn’t thrilled on behalf of all the people who were gaining a view though.
I’m really getting sick of her phone calls. She’s always playing the ‘downtrodden woman’ card or her ‘I didn’t understand, I forgot, I’m so silly’ card, and she always gets her way. I’ve decided that despite (or maybe because of) her misguided, over-the-top enthusiasm, she is sad, impotent, illogical, mean-spirited and pathetic, and I don’t want to be like her.